839.51/3904

Memorandum by the Chief of the Division of Latin American Affairs (Wilson)

Mr. W. E. Dunn, Financial Adviser to the Dominican Republic, came in. Mr. McGurk33 was present. Mr. Dunn said he had come [Page 630] to Washington in an effort to get the Dominican plan for dealing with the financial situation of that country “back on the track again.” Mr. Dunn said nothing had been done for some time about getting the preliminary steps under way for the formation of the Bondholders Committee, that Mr. Max Henríquez, the Dominican Minister for Foreign Affairs, was here in Washington, and Mr. Dunn hopes through conversations with him and the Fiscal Agents in New York to get things under way again.

Mr. Dunn said that he felt the principal reason why the Dominican Government had not gone ahead was uncertainty as to the attitude of the new administration in Washington. Mr. Dunn said that he had told the Dominican officials that the plan outlined in the Dominican Government’s letter to the Fiscal Agents, a copy of which was transmitted to the Department by the Dominican Legation on December 24, 1932,34 was the only one they could follow, and that they should go ahead with it. I told Mr. Dunn, in order that there should be no misunderstanding of the Department’s position, that the Department had expressed no view whatsoever regarding this plan. As to the attitude of the new administration, I told Mr. Dunn frankly that as yet no consideration had been given by the new administration to this Dominican situation.

E[dwin] C. W[ilson]
  1. Joseph F. McGurk, of the Division of Latin American Affairs; Assistant Chief of the Division from August 28, 1933.
  2. Ante, p. 620.